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Syd Barrett has died


Guy Berger

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Syd Barrett, formerly of Pink Floyd, passed away today.

I know a room full of musical tunes

Some rhyme

Some ching

Most of them are clockwork

Let's go into the other room and make them work

LONDON -

Syd Barrett, the troubled genius who co-founded Pink Floyd but spent his last years in reclusive anonymity, has died, a spokeswoman for the band said Tuesday. He was 60.

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The spokeswoman — who declined to give her name until the band made an official announcement — confirmed media reports that he had died. She said Barrett died several days ago, but she did not disclose the cause of death.

Barrett co-founded Pink Floyd with fellow Cambridge student

Roger Waters in 1965 and wrote many of the band's early songs.

He got the name of the band from two old blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Pink Floyd's jazz-infused rock made them darlings of the London psychedelic scene. It was the first British group to do light shows in concert and its music and style was weird even for that era.

The 1967 album "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" — largely written by Barrett — was a commercial and critical hit. The group, with additional band members

Nick Mason and

Richard Wright, came to be known as England's premier acid rockers.

But the band did a turn for the worse when Barrett became mentally unstable from the pressures of drugs and fame and had to leave the band in 1968 — five years before Pink Floyd's most popular album, "Dark Side of the Moon."

Barrett spent much of the rest of his life living quietly in his hometown of Cambridge.

Guitarist

David Gilmour, another Cambridge student, took Barrett's place.

A small, private funeral would be held, the spokeswoman said.

Edited by Guy
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sad... his solo albums are so beautiful, had thought of him this morning, :mellow:

(my favorite Barrett song)

FEEL

You feel me

away far too empty, oh so alone!

I want to go home

Oh find me inside of a nocturne - the blonde

how I love you to be by my side

they wail...

the crowd on her side

she straggled the bridge by the water...

She misses her crawl

far ley grew

heady aside in a dell

inside an eye be the lonely one, my bride

how I leave on the waddling wheel

they flail...

a gasp shringing

a bad bell's ringing

the angel - the daughter...

You feel me...

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Man, and I had gone on a renewed Barrett kick just a couple of months ago... in fact, a picture of him was my avatar for awhile. That "Astronomy Domine" performance on Youtube is amazing to watch.

PIPER is still my favorite Floyd album... those songs are close to timeless and remain stuck in my brain. Fascinating man and artist, and it's too bad that the damage he suffered--both from fame and drugs--pushed him into creative silence for the last several decades of his life. PIPER and the early singles are pop masterpieces. Long may we listen, and RIP to the Scarecrow.

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Wow! I just saw Tom Stoppard's "Rock n' Roll" in London. It's all about Czechoslovakia under the communists, a member of the British Communist party, and Syd Barret! As a result there were a lot of Pink Floyd and Syd Barret cds on display in various London music stores.

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chewy-chew-chew-checkin' in to pay my respects- PF never would of been able to do their later stuff w/o Syd showing them the way- i will listen to some early live syd and i will watch some early pf videos with syd as well today. but what did syd die of exactly? the reports havent said. was it that diebeties he had. its too bad the other memebers did not get to say goodbye while he was still alive last week- it will haunt them the rest of their lives

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chewy-chew-chew-checkin' in to pay my respects- PF never would of been able to do their later stuff w/o Syd showing them the way- i will listen to some early live syd and i will watch some early pf videos with syd as well today. but what did syd die of exactly? the reports havent said. was it that diebeties he had. its too bad the other memebers did not get to say goodbye while he was still alive last week- it will haunt them the rest of their lives

diebeties or cancer

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hi chewy chew chew again here: has anyone heard syd only solo gig. it is gimour on bass and jerry shirley from the humble pie on drums. they do an electric version of Terrapin, then they do Giglo Aunt, and then during the 3rd song syd throws his guitar down and walks off, forever-- its knarly

So, I guess it wasn't a solo gig. :cool:

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hi chewy chew chew again here: has anyone heard syd only solo gig. it is gimour on bass and jerry shirley from the humble pie on drums. they do an electric version of Terrapin, then they do Giglo Aunt, and then during the 3rd song syd throws his guitar down and walks off, forever-- its knarly

Haven't heard it, but there's a later performance, circa '72, I believe, when Barrett led a trio called Stars. Can't remember if they played one gig or two, but it pretty much ended in disaster. I think it's been booted.

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A poem by Peter Riley (from Author, though I'm quoting from his selected poems Passing Measures):

for Syd Barrett

Voiced consonants buzzing through Suffolk

to a dark road white houses when I

knew the cost I had no language,

My death spreads over the fens, love

predicates a real future or

burns to nothing like a white leaf.

My hands felt like two balloons. Did you

yes you did, see the great flocks

of Scandinavian wood pigeons and

Plovers on the ploughed fields, hundreds, in

slowly dimming winter light wearing

a question to be proud of, bending

To the day's end calling where is the

river where is the course of us

where is the bridge of flesh?

Not here, or worth knowing

in a society that reckons care

by tenths. The sheen of their wings

Makes a sea of the field

and a person's age is a grateful fact

sailing out in it with you

Sitting in the car in a dark road white

houses bookshop open answer closed

fruitful company in a closing world.

I have to believe what the earth so

distinctly says. Settle noisily honourable birds

onto everyone's food.

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hi chewy chew chew again here: has anyone heard syd only solo gig. it is gimour on bass and jerry shirley from the humble pie on drums. they do an electric version of Terrapin, then they do Giglo Aunt, and then during the 3rd song syd throws his guitar down and walks off, forever-- its knarly

It's available right now on the torrent site whose name rhymes with dozen.

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